Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) attributed the rise to a 14.6 percent decline in exports, while imports rose by 7.5 percent in this period.

“Exports dropped to 16.2 billion EGP in May, down from 18.9 billion EGP in the same period last year,” the report said.

CAPMAS said the drop was mainly caused by a decline in commodity prices, notably petroleum products, textiles, clothes, and fresh fruits.

Meanwhile, the value of imports soared to 41.6 billion EGP during May, compared to 38.7 billion EGP in the corresponding month last year, due to a price hike of some commodities such as and some oil products, meats, individuals cars and spare parts.